ELF Studio Matte Lip Colour Pencil: Praline

ELF is a brand that seldom disappoints me.  The products are truly budget products (yes, I'm looking at you High Street brands who think that a £4 million mascara constitutes an ordinary budget purchase) and they not only have a wide colour range but they're also constantly bringing out new products..and products that people actually want.

The ELF Studio Matte Lip Colour Pencils come in four different shades and I have Praline.  They also come in Coral, Natural and Tea Rose.  I find it a bit funny that Praline is the colour that looks more like my natural lip colour whereas Natural is more pinky..but it'd be the natural colour for a lot of lighter skinned people.

I will get the one negative out of the way first.  The smell.  It smells like those plastic chairs that little children have.  However, I can forgive this as the smell vanishes and everything else about them is fantastic.  And the smell fades after the first few uses.

Also, you see the smudge? The brand new pencil is not like this.  Mine has been in my bag and my hands for a long time, hence the smudge.  You see those white dots a bit further down? That's where it said "Praline" but yet again, that's worn off.

It calls itself a pencil but to me, it's more like a matte lipstick with a bit of slip to it.  I do have a pencil (from another brand) which is a pencil in the traditional sense and I cannot get away with wearing that with nothing over the top whereas I can just whack the ELF one on and go about my business.

My favourite things about this product are that firstly, it's a twist up product (no sharpening needed) and secondly, the more you use it, the rounder the head gets so application improves.

Actually, I lied.  I have another favourite thing.  It gives me the lip colour that I feel I should have been born with.  I've got the annoying "one lip darker than the other" thing going on and this imparts the same colour onto both lips.

See how natural that looks?

And it takes gloss very well.  I'm not too sure where my teeth are in this photo but I do have a full set somewhere in there.

A lot of matte lip products have a tendency to dry your lips out but I really don't feel that the ELF pencil does that.  I've used it non stop and my lips haven't dried out at all.  I've also not been using as much Carmex so what does that tell you?  If anything actually, my lips feel softer after using this than they do after I've used moisturising lipsticks.

For the princely sum of £3.50, you can't get much better.  My only criticism is that ELF should make more colours, if there were more colours that I could wear, I'd totally buy those.  Click here to buy one!  My timing is obviously not my strong suit (I am Punjabi after all..our clocks run three hours behind everyone elses) as a few days ago, these were selling for £1 on the ELF website..and I bought three backups.

NARS Velvet Gloss Lip Pencils in Club Mix and Baroque

The NARS Velvet Gloss Lip pencils are my ideal product.  Pigmented, glossy and long lasting.  I have two of these pencils, one being Club Mix and other other being Baroque.  Club Mix reminds me of an 80's George Michael sitting by a pool chowing down on Bombay Mix.

Club Mix is described as a sheer grape colour and Baroque is described as bold raspberry sorbet.  Grape coloured lip products works quite well for me but raspberry is something out of my comfort zone.

I know some NARS lipsticks have a funny smell to them but these pencils do not smell of anything.  You know I'm on scents like a bloodhound but I failed to smell anything untoward emanating from these.

I line my lower lip, smack it with the top one and then just fill them in.  You never end up using too much as once you've filled your lips in, you're done..and you know your lips are done.  I feel that it's foolproof in that respect as you never end up putting too much on which is a trap I always fell into with gloss. 

If you have dry lips, these will not emphasise the dryness.  The colour fades to a stain after you've eaten which is good if you haven't got the pencil with you to touch it up.  The longest it has ever lasted on me was from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. (without eating) so that's pretty good going (the lasting power of the lipstick, NOT how long I managed to survive without food!)

On the lip business..

It's obvious that both swatches were taken in different light.  I have however, edited the last photo so that you see the true colour..ain't I nice?  Club Mix has found its way into my everyday makeup bag but I feel that Baroque makes my mouth look small.  I pointed this out to someone who replied with "if only it could minimise the sound".  Charming!

These are not twist up pencils.  You can sharpen them with a standard fat sharpener.  I'm not sure how they sharpen as the need hasn't come about yet.

Drawing comparison between these and the Clinique Chubby Sticks (which I've swatched instore), I can say this: the NARS pencils pack a lot more pigment than the Chubby Sticks.  The Chubby Sticks do have their own inbuilt sharpener but the colour is very feint.  If you have pigmented lips, I'd give the Chubby Sticks a miss as it'd be hard to see the colour on your lips.  Having said that, the Chubby Sticks aren't sold as being a gloss, it clearly states that they are balms, but even still, I'd have expected a bit more pigment.

Each NARS pencil retails at £17.50 and can be bought from the NARS website.  One note of caution, look for on the skin/lip swatches before you buy these as the swatches on the NARS site aren't brilliant.  I thought Hopi would be a good my lips but better shade for me but swatches by other bloggers showed this wasn't the case!